threat actor

English

Etymology

Likely US Government jargon, derived from actor (“one that takes part in an action”). First attested in 2000.

Noun

threat actor (plural threat actors)

  1. (computer security) A person or entity that conducts malicious activities against digital targets, particularly cyberattacks.
    Threat actors have repeatedly attempted to breach our systems, without success.
    • 2000 August, Bill Flynt, “Threat Kingdom”, in Military Review, volume 80, number 4, United States Army Combined Arms Center, page 17:
      A pure threat actor is less complex in capabilities and intent than a mixed type. The most complex actor would possess “the highest and most encompassing” capabilities and intent and compromise a threat kingdom of potential strategies.
    • 2016 October 26, Roland Dobbins, Steinthor Bjarnason, “Mirai IoT Botnet Description and DDoS Attack Mitigation”, in NETSCOUT‎[1], archived from the original on 1 March 2019:
      As noted above, multiple threat actor groups are actively working to expand and improve the DDoS attack capabilities of Mirai-variant botnets.
    • 2026 January 10, Anu Priya, “17.5 Million Instagram Accounts Exposed in Major Data Leak”, in Cyber Press‎[2], archived from the original on 10 January 2026:
      The compromised dataset appeared on a notorious hacking forum earlier this week, posted by a threat actor operating under the alias "Solonik."
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.